1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a hard disk drive, and more particularly, to a ramp to park a read/write head and a hard disk drive including the ramp.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is a type of information storage device including a disk to which data can be written or from which data can be read, by using a read/write head. The HDD includes a disk, a spindle motor to rotate the disk, a read/write head, and an actuator for moving the read/write head to a desired location above the disk. All of these elements are protected by being covered with a base member and a cover member. The read/write head is moved to a desired location by the actuator while being elevated from a recording surface of the rotating disk by a predetermined height.
The actuator includes a swing arm rotatably coupled to an actuator pivot, a suspension assembly that is coupled to a front end of the swing arm and elastically supports a slider on which the read/write head is mounted toward a surface of the disk, and a voice coil motor (VCM) to rotate the swing arm
When the HDD is turned on and the disk rotates, the VCM rotates the swing arm of the actuator in a counter clockwise direction so as to move the slider on which the read/write head is mounted over a recording surface of the disk, and the read/write head mounted on the slider reads data stored on the recording surface of the disk or writes data on the recording surface of the disk.
Alternatively, when the HDD is turned off, that is, when the disk does not rotate, the VCM rotates the swing arm in a clockwise direction so as to move the read/write head to be outside the recording surface of the disk. Therefore, since the read/write head is disposed outside the recording surface of the disk, the read/write head cannot contact the recording surface of the disk. To do this, a ramp to park the read/write head is disposed outside the disk and a suspension assembly of the HDD, including the read/write head, includes a tip-tab for contacting the ramp.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional ramp 30 to park a read/write head and a suspension assembly 20 of an HDD having a tip-tab for contacting the ramp.
Referring to FIG. 1, the suspension assembly 20 includes a tip-tab 28 extending from a front end of a road beam 24. The road beam 24 is coupled to a swing arm 22 of an actuator. A flexure 26 is coupled to the road beam 24, and a slider 27 including the read/write head is attached to and supported by the flexure 26. The ramp 30 is disposed outside a disk 10.
When an operation of the HDD stops, the tip-tab 28 is moved to the ramp 30, thereby parking the read/write head on the ramp 30. The tip-tab 28 may have a cross section protruding toward a surface of the ramp 30 in order to increase rigidity of the tip-tab 28. The ramp 30 has an inclined rail surface 32 and a horizontal rail surface 34, and a boundary line 36 between the inclined rail surface 32 and the horizontal rail surface 34 is parallel to a lengthwise axis C of the tip-tab 28. That is, the rail boundary 36 is perpendicular to a moving direction B of the tip-tab 28.
When the operation of the HDD stops, the tip-tab 28 moves from a position over the disk 10 onto the ramp 30 by a clockwise rotation of the actuator. Specifically, the tip-tab 28 contacts the inclined rail surface 32 of the ramp 30, and is elevated along the inclined rail surface 32 before moving onto the horizontal rail surface 34. As described above, the tip-tab 28 slides on the inclined rail surface 32 and the horizontal rail surface 34 in the moving direction B.
However, in the conventional ramp structure described above, as the tip-tab 28 moves in the moving direction B, a middle portion of the tip-tab 28 continuously contacts the inclined and horizontal rail surfaces 32 and 34 of the ramp 30. Therefore, when a contact site A, corresponding to the middle portion, of the tip-tab 28 and the inclined and horizontal rail surfaces 32 and 34 is fixed, a surface of the middle portion of the tip-tab 28 and surfaces of the middle portions of the inclined and horizontal rail surfaces 32 and 34 are easily worn due to friction continuously occurring between the tip-tab 28 and the inclined and horizontal rail surfaces 32 and 34, and particles generated due to the abrasion contaminate an inner portion of the HDD and degrade the performance of the HDD.